While Stevin investigated statics, Galileo pursued principally dynamics. Galileo was the first to abandon the Aristotelian idea that bodies descend more quickly in proportion as they are heavier; he established the first law of motion; determined the laws of falling bodies; and, having obtained a clear notion of acceleration and of the independence of different motions, was able to prove that projectiles move in parabolic curves. Up to his time it was believed that a cannon-ball moved forward at first in a straight line and then suddenly fell vertically to the ground. Galileo had an understanding of centrifugal forces, and gave a correct definition of momentum. Though he formulated the fundamental principles of statics, known as the parallelogram of forces, yet he did not fully recognise its scope. The principle of virtual velocities was partly conceived by Guido Ubaldo (died 1607), and afterwards more fully by Galileo.

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "While Stevin investigated statics, Galileo pursued principally dynamics. Galileo was the first to abandon the Aristotelian idea that bodies descend more quickly in proportion as they are heavier; he established the first law of motion; determined the laws of falling bodies; and, having obtained a clear notion of acceleration and of the independence of different motions, was able to prove that projectiles move in parabolic curves. Up to his time it was believed that a cannon-ball moved forward at first in a straight line and then suddenly fell vertically to the ground. Galileo had an understanding of centrifugal forces, and gave a correct definition of momentum. Though he formulated the fundamental principles of statics, known as the parallelogram of forces, yet he did not fully recognise its scope. The principle of virtual velocities was partly conceived by Guido Ubaldo (died 1607), and afterwards more fully by Galileo." in the context of "Florian Cajori, A History of Elementary Mathematics (1898)" to mean that wisdom is timeless.